This application claims the benefit of Taiwan (Republic of China) application No. 107120102, filed on Jun. 12, 2018, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
The present invention relates to a method for notifying a user by a computer system, and more particularly to a method for notifying a user by using an indicator light of a computer system.
In a computer system, users are often notified through sounds. For example, when an email is received, the computer system sends a specific sound or voice through its speaker to notify the user of the reception of a new email. However, for users with hearing impairments, and for users who set the computer system in a silent mode, the above-mentioned method of notifying the users through sound cannot effectively reach the purpose of alerting the user.
The present invention mainly provides a method for notifying a user by using an indicator light of a computer system, so that the user can immediately know the current state of the computer system according to the illumination manner of the indicator light.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a method for notifying a user by a computer system. The computer system comprises an application program, an operating system, a basic input/output system (BIOS), at least one indicator light, and a light controller. The method comprises: in response to an event of the application program, transmitting a light indication to the operating system through an application programming interface (API) of the operating system; in response to the light indication, transmitting a control command to the BIOS by an instrumentation of the operating system; in response to the control command, transmitting a light command to the light controller by the BIOS; and controlling the at least one indicator light to emit light in a specific way according to the light command by the light controller.
According to the method of the present invention, when the application program generates a predetermined event, information of the predetermined event would be converted into a light command through the OS, the BIOS and the light controller to control the indicator light(s) to emit light. In this way, when a predetermined event occurs in the computer system (such as receiving a new email or message), the user can know the event instantly according to the illumination manner of the indicator light(s). Therefore, for a user with hearing impairment or a user who switches the computer system to the silent mode, the user can still be notified.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
When the application program 110 generates a predetermined event, for example, when a message is received or a new email is received, the application program 110 responds to the event by using an application programming interface (API) 122 of the OS 120 to transmit a light indication S1 to the OS 120 so as to notify the OS 120 of the occurrence of the above event. Then, the OS 120 transmits a control command C1 to the BIOS 130 through an instrumentation 124 of the OS 120 in response to the light indication S1. In the embodiment, the instrumentation 124 is Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) of Microsoft's Windows operating system, but the invention is not limited thereto. After the BIOS 130 receives the control command C1, the BIOS 130 transmits a light command C2 to the light controller 140 through a predetermined channel in response to the control command C1. The predetermined channel is, for example, a 45-port of the light controller 140. In addition, in the embodiment, the computer system 100 is a laptop, and the light controller 140 is an embedded controller (EC) of the laptop. In another embodiment of the present invention, the computer system 100 is a desktop computer, and the light controller 140 is a super input/output (super I/O; SIO) chip of the desktop computer.
When the light controller 140 receives the light command C2 from the BIOS 130 the light controller 140 controls the indicator lights 151 and/or 152 to emit light in a predetermined manner according to the light command C2. Furthermore, the number of indicator lights controlled by the light controller 140 may be a single one, two or more indicator lights, and although only two indicator lights 151 and 152 are shown in
Please refer to
Step S210: in response to an event of the application program 110, transmit a light indication S1 to the OS 120 through the API 122 of the OS 120;
Step S220: in response to the light indication S1, transmit the control command C1 to the BIOS 130 by the instrumentation 124 of the OS 120;
Step S230: in response to the control command C1, transmit the light command C2 to the light controller 140 by the BIOS 130; and
Step S240: control the indicator lights 151 and/or 152, by the light controller 140, to emit light in a predetermined manner according to the light command C2.
In summary, according to the method of the present invention, when the application program generates a predetermined event, information of the predetermined event would be converted into a light command through the OS, the BIOS and the light controller to control the indicator light(s) to emit light. In this way, when the predetermined event occurs in the computer system (such as receiving a new email or message) the user can know the event instantly according to the illumination approaches of the indicator light (s). Therefore, for a user with hearing impairment or a user who switches the computer system to the silent mode, the user can be effectively notified.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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107120102 | Jun 2018 | TW | national |